Daily updates about Syria

6/3/2014

Today is the day of Syria’s first multi-candidate presidential election, although it is viewed as a farce by much of the world. 9 countries sent observers to monitor the election.

A group of American-Syrians who flew to Damascus to vote.

A ballot box seized by Kurdish forces in Qamishli. Kurdish forces said the boxes were pre-filled with election slips voting for Assad.

A pro-Assad campaign poster in Homs that reads “Together we will rebuild it.”

10 rebel councils in Eastern Ghouta signed a statement saying that they have not made a truce with Damascus.

Colonel Ismail Mullah Omair, the Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Council in the province of Deir Ez Zor, confirmed that many villages in rural Deir Ez Zor have been taken from the ISIL as the result of a large scale offensive.

He also revealed that there had been a secret agreement between the government, the PYD,and the ISIL, which included that the ISIL withdraw from Raqqa and the countryside of Qamishli and Al Hasakah, except the village of Markadah, and devote its activities to Deir Ez Zor. The ISIL would then be given large amounts of money and allowed to occupy the province of Deir Ez Zor, including its oil and gas wells.

He said that the offensive was prompted because the ISIL primarily fights rebels and avoids fighting the government.

The ISIL executed 2 men by slitting their throats in Assalheyyi in Deir Ez Zor province on charges that they joined rebel groups.

The FSA has released the first issue of its newspaper. The issue was 4 pages long and 5,000 copies were made, but the number of pages and copies will increase as more issues are released.

Turkey has designated Jahbat al-Nusra as an al-Qaeda affiliate.

The Islamic Front, Jaish al-Muhajideen, Ajnad al-Sham, and Failaq al-Sham released a statement saying they will not be targeting voting centers, but warned voters that the ISIL has not designated voting centers as off-limits, and that the government may stage attacks to blame on rebels.

The Islamic Front said that it captured T72 tanks around Mleha.

The Imam Bukhari Jamaat, an Uzbeki jihadist group, released a video showing a training camp that it has in Syria.

The Islamic Front captured the village of Salba in western Hama province.

The Islamic Front captured the village of Um SharShuh and killed at least 20 soldiers in the Homs countryside.

7 people were killed and 31 injured from government shelling in Douma in the Damascus countryside.

A boy injured in Douma.

The EU said that 40 Belgians and 70 French have been killed fighting in Syria.

11 people in government-held neighborhoods in Aleppo were killed from rebel mortar fire.

Rebels retook the village of Azzan in southern Aleppo.

In the eastern part of Morek, in Hama province, the SAA and NDF attacked, losing 1 tank and an unknown number of casualties.

5 fighters from Islamic battalions and 2 from Jahbat al-Nusra were killed fighting government forces near the village of Om Sharshoh. Rebels took over the hill overlooking the village, and fighting within the village is still ongoing.

A Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer was killed by shelling of a SARC office in Homs.

Children at a Jahbat al-Nusra training camp.

A Syria Civil Defense team in Aleppo after a barrel bombing.

SAA soldiers outside of Mleha wait for rebels to exit a tunnel.

Children killed by airstrikes in Sarmin, Idlib.

Children from the al-Zaatari camp in Jordan perform Shakespeare in a Roman theater.